Holy Roman Empire

Wherever there are people, there are rivers and lakes. When interests are involved, everything becomes complicated.

There are those who are against "free trade" and those who are for it. Not everyone was a victim of "free trade", on the contrary, there were also many industries in Britain that were beneficiaries of free trade.

For example: the coal industry.

Since the beginning of the last century, Britain has been the world's largest exporter of coal. To this day, nearly one-third of Britain's coal production capacity is exported.

Once it exited the free trade system, the coal owners' good days were over. With tariff barriers, Britain's coal will lose its cost advantage.

If the energy industry does not have a monopoly on the market, their core competency is cost. Without a cost advantage, market capture is almost inevitable.

Another example: the textile industry.

Although the textile industry was severely impacted by the wave of industrialization, Britain is still the world's number one textile exporter.

Even though the share of British textiles in the international market has shrunk, the total amount of textile exports has not declined much because the market for economic development has become larger.

The figures are all false, only the money is real. Regardless of the future market prospects, at least for the time being it is profitable.

Once they leave the free trade system, these export-oriented companies, one of them at a time, will not be able to survive.

Driven by profit, Britain's business community is already divided. Behind the scenes, the conglomerates that control business and industry have a headache.

Decisions about who to support and who to oppose are never taken for granted. In essence, a consortium is a collection of capital interests that are not powerfully binding.

Consortia are powerful when their interests are aligned. Now that there is disagreement within the members, the power of the consortium has actually been weakened to the extreme.

If the interests of some of the members are seriously harmed, the consortium could split in a minute. Against this background, all that the leaders of the consortium can do is to reconcile the contradictions as much as possible.

The question of whether or not to withdraw from the free trade system cannot be settled immediately if there is a split within the capital.

Without trade barriers to protect the market, the London government's economic stimulus policies would be useless.

No matter how much the policy is stimulated, the industries that don't work will always fail. If the products are not competitive in the market, no amount of preferential policies will help.

If economic problems cannot be solved, political reform will be even more difficult. Most of the reforms submitted by the Campbell government were rejected by the House of Lords, except for the passage of the Industrial Disputes Bill, which involved the economy.

For example: reducing the powers of the House of Lords, supporting self-government for Ireland, and granting higher autonomy to the colonies. ......

With so many cheese-moving reforms proposed, the Campbell administration's life soon became difficult.

In order to protect their own interests, the conservatives were forced to unite and use the legislature as a front to start a "war of words" with the reformers.

The Conservatives were forced to band together to defend their interests. ......

Downing Street, Prime Minister's Residence.

Looking through the window into the distance, Prime Minister Campbell sighed deeply. At the moment, his mood was similar to the weather in London, which was all gray.

As a symbol of the advent of the industrial age, London had been shrouded in smog since the last century.

Especially in winter, it was not uncommon for visibility to be less than 50 meters. If fog lamps had not been invented, London would not have been able to drive in winter.

Campbell couldn't care less about the weather. He had not slept well since the Reformation began, and every day countless troubles came to him.

The conservatives and the reformers were quarreling, and the conflict between them had almost become public. The battlefield spread from the parliament to the entire society.

The radio and the press were the main battlegrounds of their arguments.

"The man says the man is right, the woman says the woman is right."

As the argument unfolded, even the intellectuals and middle-class elites, not to mention the general public, were confused.

In fact, Campbell himself was somewhat befuddled. Although he was the one who proposed the reform policy, Campbell was not sure it would succeed after listening to the opposition's arguments.

The most important thing now is to reform the economy and reverse the deteriorating economic situation in the country.

Only when the economic reform succeeded and enough prestige was built up, could political reform be pushed further.

After releasing his emotions, Campbell turned around and asked, "Who's in the upper hand out there now?"

Unlike in other countries, there was not much of a power differential between the reformers and conservatives in Britain.

Then a bizarre scene emerged, in which no one was able to overwhelm anyone in the course of the debate.

Today the Reformers prevailed, tomorrow the Conservatives prevailed, and no one knew what the final result would be.

The confusing situation has made the speculators in the government afraid to take sides. How can the reform go on without the help of bureaucrats?

Interior Minister Azevedo: "No results yet. The stubborn faction is too strong, and it will be difficult to split the two sides in a short time.

But the agricultural guilds we've brought together have moved on, and it's in their interest to withdraw from the free trade system."

Compared to the industrial and commercial world, the farmers of Britain were the real tragedy. Due to geological constraints, there is not much land in the British Isles suitable for agriculture, and the cost of agricultural production is relatively high.

Faced with the onslaught of foreign agricultural products, British agriculture was "all but helpless".

They could not make a fuss, because Britain's grain production could not meet its own needs.

The cheaper the grain, the better, since it was imported. The interests of the peasants were naturally sacrificed as all sectors of society stood together.

The interests of the peasants were not only lost to the ordinary peasants, but also to the farmers and the nobles who owned the land.

They had a political voice, but they were much weaker in the face of the business community.

In order to change this passive situation, agricultural guilds were formed among these people. They united to fight for their interests politically.

As you can see from the selling prices of agricultural products in the market, the agricultural guild did not achieve the goal that everyone expected.

It is not that the agricultural guild did not work hard, but the politicians were too shameless. They say one thing before they come to power and do another thing afterwards.

They invested many times and eventually failed, so much so that we all lost confidence.

If they hadn't been so scared, these guys would have gotten involved, and abolishing the free trade system and implementing tariff barriers would have been a major benefit to agriculture.

Prime Minister Campbell nodded his head and exclaimed, "It better be! Otherwise it would have been too damaging to the country to keep this stalemate going."

The Agricultural Guild was not even mentioned, and it was clear that Campbell was not prepared to keep his promise.

There was no way around it; Britain's limited food production simply couldn't meet its own needs, and imports were inevitable.

The protection of agriculture meant higher prices for agricultural products, which would inevitably increase the pressure on the working class to survive, and the cost of labor for businesses would have to go up as well.

The capitalists are not vegetarians; every time labor costs rise, the working class fights for it with its life.

Just think of the dire consequences of a nationwide strike wave, which would make any politician wince.

......

Foreign Minister Adam Wingate: "Let's not just focus on the domestic troubles, it's not like there's been a lot of international trouble lately.

The Venezuelan civil war is raging, with the faction we support losing the war, and with it, the empire's expansion in the region.

Washington recently reached an agreement with the government in Vienna to open the Panama Canal, ending the freezing diplomacy between the two countries since the Civil War.

The Far East has recently been in trouble again, and tensions between the Russians and the Japanese have intensified, even threatening to erupt into war.

......"

As a global empire, it was inevitable that the international situation would change. Of course, Britain was not just concerned, but actively involved.

Adam Wingate spoke of so many international events, all of which were directly related to Britain, or even planned by Britain itself.

For example, the most obscure civil war in Venezuela was one of the British government's efforts to expand in the Americas.

Only they started it, but were unable to determine the end. No one expected that an ordinary civil war would go on for years because of international intervention.

Now that it is coming to an end, the tragedy is that the side supported by the British government has lost the civil war.

There was no way around it. Who let Britannia have a bad reputation and not watch what she ate?

Because of its late rise, Shinra was too late to expand its power in Venezuela, and naturally it could not talk about hatred.

The main purpose of participating in the Venezuelan Civil War was to add to the troubles of Britain, and there was no intention of invading Venezuela.

On the one hand, the British invaded their own country, and on the other hand, there was Shinra, which was specifically designed to make things difficult for the British, and the Venezuelan people knew who to support even with their eyes closed.

In a commonplace proxy war, the big boss mainly issues loans and sells arms, and naturally, the one who gets the most help wins.

These days, Venezuela is not the oil-rich country of later times. In addition to the land being slightly more fertile, it's basically what you want and what you don't have, and it's not even worth mentioning.

A few minor setbacks could not shake Britain's supremacy. The failure of the proxy wars only proved the failure of the proxies supported, but did not mean that the British Empire was not strong.

In contrast, the Washington government's move toward Vienna is the real cause for alarm.

The core of international politics is profit, and jumping ship for a new boss is a routine operation. As long as the government of Vienna is willing to pay the price, it is not impossible to bring the United States together.

It's not like similar operations haven't happened before, and many of Shinra's current henchmen are poached from under them.

The government is also looking for a way to make sure that the country's only major ally is also poached.

Prime Minister Campbell: "The Venezuelan issue is a step-by-step affair right now. He said the government will continue to work on the issue and will continue to work on the issue.

He said the government should not take any action against the Chinese government, but should not take any action against the Chinese government.

Emperor Franz seems to be a gentleman, but in fact he is also an absolute hegemonist who cannot tolerate an existence that might threaten the Shinra.

It was clear from their occupation of Central America and their stranglehold on the Americans that the Vienna government would not allow the birth of a great power in the Americas.

With this fundamental contradiction in mind, it would have been impossible under normal circumstances for the Washington government to fall in their favor.

But everything can go awry. If the Vienna government had allowed the Americans to annex Canada in order to gain hegemony, it is possible that the Washington government would have been tempted.

As for the issue of the Russo-Japanese conflict, which is itself part of our plan, let their hatred grow even deeper!

The bait has been put down, and with the greed of the Mao bears, as soon as the Trans-Siberian Railway comes into operation, they are bound to invade eastward.

It seems that the Russians are really impatient and are not even willing to wait this little time."

As an ancestor of the buried people, in terms of provocative skills, Britain claimed to be the second, but no country dared to call itself the leader.

The Trans-Siberian Railway had not yet been opened to traffic, and the Japanese-Russian conflict was the first to be stirred up. It is not a problem if you don't seek the Japanese's bad luck.

......

The British government was preparing, and the Vienna government was also not idle, everyone was preparing for the next game.

The Russians were so big-hearted that they did not even hide the progress of the construction of the Trans-Siberian Railway from the outside world.

Thanks to the selfless dedication of a group of free laborers, the construction of the Trans-Siberian Railway progressed much faster than expected.

Perhaps it was because the American railroad technical team was helpful, or perhaps it was because the French laborers died without pain, but in short, the construction of the Trans-Siberian Railway progressed very smoothly.

In the words of the French writer Romain Rolland, "Every sleeper of the Trans-Siberian Railway was laid with the flesh and blood of French laborers".

Franz was very much in agreement with this statement.

According to information from inside the Tsarist government, more than 250,000 French laborers had given their lives for the construction of the Trans-Siberian Railway in the past few years.

Whether they died of cold, disease, starvation, exhaustion, or accidental death on the construction site, this question is no longer important.

The French will have to pay the Russians for this anyway.

Judging from the current situation, it is very likely that the French laborers who entered the Russian Empire will not be able to return.

There was no way around it, the Russian Empire was so large, with so many infrastructure projects, that the Tsarist government needed laborers who were free, could afford to die, and had no complications.

French grudges, that doesn't count. Even if France someday turns over a new leaf, it's unlikely that they'll be able to run across the Holyrood to retaliate.

......

Vienna Palace

"The Trans-Siberian Railway was built much faster than we expected, much faster than the Central Asian Railway.

According to the Russians, the Trans-Siberian Railway will be ready for traffic in 1905. By then the biggest obstacle to the Russian advance eastward would be removed.

Once the railroad was opened, the Far Eastern Empire and the Japanese alone would be no match for the Russians. Especially since these two countries had been at war for several years, it would be difficult to unite them.

In order to limit the development of the Russians, I am going to strengthen ......"

Before Frederick could finish his speech, Franz interrupted: "The Siberian Railway is different from the Central Asian Railway.

The Central Asian Railway, which we helped to build, is a double line railroad, while the Trans-Siberian Railway, which the Americans helped to design, is a single line railroad.

Even if it does open, how many trains do you think the Trans-Siberian Railway will be able to send every day?

With this little capacity, there was no problem supplying daily needs. If war broke out, the Russians would immediately feel the logistical strain.

Besides, don't you think it's strange that the Americans helped the government build railroads?

The Trans-Siberian Railway is not profitable, and it's a blessing that the operating income wipes out the daily maintenance expenses.

I don't think there is anyone else who can be so generous, except for the British who want to bring misfortune upon themselves.

The stage is set, and I don't believe the British will be unprepared. The next step is enough for us to push in the dark, and the British government will arrange the rest."